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Santorum: ‘I Really Believe The Fundamentals Of American Economy Is Still Strong’

On his radio show last night, conservative talker Hugh Hewitt asked former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) to give his “sense of where the economy is headed right now.” Santorum replied that he had “an innate sense that America is never going to revisit the Depression era again.” “I really don’t believe we’re going to go there again,” said Santorum.

After criticizing President Obama’s “doom and gloom” predictions, Santorum declared, “I really do believe that the fundamentals of American economy is still strong”:

SANTORUM: I think we’re probably, you know, reaching the bottom here in the next few months. There’s probably some more bad things that are going to happen, particularly in the credit markets. But, look, I don’t think — I think all this prediction of Obama’s doom and gloom and some others out there I think is overblown. I really do believe that the fundamentals of American economy is still strong and that we are, you know, we’ll pull ourselves out of this probably by the end of the year.

Earlier this week, a survey of 51 economic forecasters found that “the recession-hit U.S. economy is proving weaker than economists expected just a month ago.” The survey was conducted before last Friday’s jobs report that “showed the unemployment rate surged to a 25-year high of 8.1 percent last month as employers cut 651,000 jobs.”

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Last week, Harvard economist Robert Barro wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “there is ample reason to worry about slipping into a depression,” putting the odds at “roughly one-in-five.” Economist Nouriel Roubini, who warned about the housing bubble in 2005, told Time that “unless we take the right policy actions, we’ll end up in a near depression.”

Unlike Santorum, these economists don’t have an “innate” feeling. They have knowledge and understanding of the weak state of the economy.

Transcript:

HEWITT: Give me your sense of where the economy is headed right now. Today, the CEO of JPMorganChase and Company said that, you know, there are some modest signs of recovery out there. Yesterday Citibank had a report saying that it had a couple of decent months. What do you think Rick Santorum?

SANTORUM: Well, you know, I’m always of the opinion when everybody is saying things are really bad and everybody starts to sell out of the market, which is what’s happened here over the last, you know, three months since the election. You know, I have an innate sense that America is never going to revisit the Depression era again. And if that’s the case, and I really don’t believe we’re going to go there again, then I think we’re probably, you know, reaching the bottom here in the next few months. There’s probably some more bad things that are going to happen, particularly in the credit markets. But, look, I don’t think — I think all this prediction of Obama’s doom and gloom and some others out there I think is overblown. I really do believe that the fundamentals of American economy is still strong and that we are, you know, we’ll pull ourselves out of this probably by the end of the year.

HEWITT: I’m with you on that. In fact, I think it’s going to be faster than that.